


we deserve a soft epilogue (we are good people)

by MarsSoccer



Category: Men's Football RPF
Genre: Fluff, Light Angst, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-17
Updated: 2019-06-17
Packaged: 2020-05-13 19:17:21
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,041
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19257514
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MarsSoccer/pseuds/MarsSoccer
Summary: marry your best friend, sally tells him. and maybe, just maybe, he'll do exactly that.





	we deserve a soft epilogue (we are good people)

_‘Marry your best friend,’_ Sally tells him when he’s fifteen and his first girlfriend has just dumped him over text for the rugby captain in the year above. She was his first love and it is his first heartbreak and despite what Harry tells him to do, he can’t just get over it, so he spends the weekend tucked up in his bed, watching reruns of Match of the Day.

He doesn’t pay any attention to Sally’s advice.

*

He is nineteen and his signature just drying on the Spurs contract when he meets his best friend. He doesn’t think that he should gravitate to Eric the way that he does but he can’t help it. It just feels right - it doesn’t matter that they are polar opposites or if they had met anywhere other than the football pitch Dele would have wrote him off as a posh twat. Deep down, Dele knows that he has found his soulmate. Deep down, Dele knows that Eric’s special.

_‘Marry your best friend,’_ he hears Sally’s voices say in the back of his mind. He does his upmost best to ignore it.

*  
It is not that he isn’t aware that he likes boys. He has long since figured that out and is finally comfortable in his skin.  He’s not having an existential crisis because he has a crush on a boy, he’s having an existential crisis because the boy he has a crush on his is best friend. Having a crush on your best friend is a lot different than going out to gay bars on the weekend and hooking up with a random stranger. This whole thing he has with Eric is a lot more complicated and could be the end of their friendship, if he ever dared to act on it. He’s certain Eric is straight – who could be straighter than barbeque grilling, dog loving, Portuguese speaking, baggy clothes wearing Eric Dier? It hurts, yes, but he’ll take it. He may not have exactly what he wants from the relationship but what he has it so close, so he learns to live with it. He loves Eric and Eric loves him and although it might not be in the way that he wants, love is still love and he would rather have an Eric that only sees him as a friend than an Eric who does his best to avoid him.

*

It turns out drunk Eric and Dele are much less emotionally constipated than their sober counterparts. He’s annoyed that it takes a heart-breaking and title run ending draw to Chelsea to make him actually act on his feelings. Deep down, he knows the draw is just the catalyst and it’s all the rumours that Eric’s going to leave – leave the club, leave London, leave him – that makes him act because Dele can’t let him go without at least knowing if they could ever make it work.

It’s a drunken, sloppy kiss and drunken revelations that would make sense to nobody else but Eric – because it has always been Eric, it’s a language that he shares with nobody else but Eric. They make love that night and the morning after, desperate to make up for all their lost time and they’re lying in bed with Eric’s arm draped across his waist when he hears Sally’s ‘ _marry your best friend’_ & he thinks _maybe I’ll date him first_.

*

Eric’s the one that proposes. Dele is slightly miffed to be beaten to the proposal and slightly annoyed that he doesn’t get to actually use his brilliant proposal plan - for a split second, he does debate saying no just so he can actually use his plan but one look at Eric and his blue, blue  eyes and that thought quickly disappears. Eric, his Eric down on one knee, in the middle of their London apartment, asking to be his husband, asking if he wants to spend the rest of their lives together. Dele can feel the tears forming in his eyes because this is all he ever wanted and more than he ever thought he would get – to have someone who loves him back, in spite of all his faults and issues and everything about him – it is what he has gone to bed dreaming of and now it’s finally coming true. He has found someone, who, just like the Hickfords chose him and gave him a home.

‘ _Marry your best friend,’_ Sally says.

‘I will,’ Dele tells Eric.

*

Since he didn’t get to show off his amazing planning skills with his proposal, Dele goes to town with the wedding. He’s careful not to go to over the top because he doesn’t want Eric to have an aneurysm before he says I do but Dele is certain that it will be obvious to the guests who had the most say in the wedding planning.

The wedding itself is in the Portuguese countryside and the guests are a mix of family, teammates and friends. The ceremony starts and Dele would be lying if he said he doesn’t tear up when Eric reads out his vows and when the officiant asks him if he wants to take Eric as his husband, his ‘I do’ is slightly choked up. _Of course I do,_ he thinks, _I’ve been waiting my whole life for this_. As him and Eric walk down the aisle, hand in hand, as their guests throw confetti in the air and it falls all around them, Dele is certain he couldn’t be happier - _this,_ he thinks _, is paradise_.

The reception has the blend of _eric-and-dele_ that the wedding ceremony had and as everyone sits down to eat their meal, Dele can’t help but wonder how he got so lucky. Once the meal is over, the speeches begin and Dele both cries and laughs at each speaker’s retelling of their relationship. Sally is last person to give a speech and as she begins her speech, Dele can’t help how the smile on his face grows bigger and bigger.

_‘My first ever piece of relationship advice to Dele was to marry his best friend’._

_Yeah,_ Dele thinks as he turns to look at Eric who is already beaming at him like he’s won the lottery, _I’m so glad I listened._

**Author's Note:**

> it's been a while since the last time i wrote a piece of fanfiction but i've been wanting to write for a while so i just sat down and did it - wow, look at me go being proactive instead of procrastinating for once! anyway, i hope you guys enjoyed this little story that i cobbled together and remember that kudos and constructive comments are always welcomed! 
> 
> feel free to message me on my tumblr - marssoccer


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